What Do You Mean, Miscalculation?
by 2xTheSpeedOfLife
Summary: A short lesson in math, inspired by the injustice commited at the beginning of the season 3 Nick dub.


_I__ kid you not, dear readers, the opening few lines of this short story features actual dialogue from the latest dub of the first episode of season three._

_Don't get me wrong. I love that the producers of Nickelodeon were able to revive Winx Club. But they cannot do math worth crap._

* * *

The last day of school always seemed to be a distant one—that is, until you woke up to find that fateful number on your calendar glaring at you full in the face, leaving you scratching your head, wondering where all the days had gone.

To finish packing the day of departure was somewhat of a regular occurrence for Alfea students, for whom it had never truly sunk in until today that summer holidays were upon them. This was evident from the students scurrying back and forth across the hallways, from the commotion behind every closed door. As..._school-lik_e as school was, there were those who couldn't help but put off the thought of leaving for home until the issue became too immediate. There were some unfortunate ones who had even started packing today, for which the process of leaving was an even more frantic one.

Tecna was one who had fit into this category, a fact she found surprising, since she was normally quite proactive about matters such as this one. Then again, there was nothing frantic about her procedure, which might have been why she had chosen not to commence yesterday in the first place: she simply hadn't needed to. Of course, her calculations were slightly time consuming, a fact she deduced from being the last remaining member of her dorm to finish, but at least there was no way she was going to be reduced to laboring over two open suitcases and a few meager stacks of clothes. Technology had made sure of that.

Sprawled out on the foot of her bed, Tecna made the last few definite raps on her keypad, signifying that her calculations were complete.

"Finished!" The technology fairy flashed a triumphant grin to Digit, her bonded pixie, who was hovering about her old desk. The area had been almost disturbingly bare for the past hour or so; normally the table was practically sagging under the weight of so much technological equipment. "I've figured it all out; everything from the volume of the suitcases from the mass of each individual belonging has been accounted for."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Digit asked impatiently, doing an ariel loop to show her engagement.

"I was getting to that," Tecna assured her, her fingertips flying smartly across the keys. She stood up, still typing as she did so. "Here we go...twenty-two-point-four percent in this suitcase...and seventy-eight-point-six percent in that one." Acknowledging the completed equation with a nod, she pressed the enter key with a firm finality. "Magi-send!"

Tecna felt a rush of pride as the entire contents of her closet folded themselves neatly into their respective suitcases. Had this all been necessary? Perhaps not: with her limited supply of apparel, there was still room left over in even the smaller suitcase. But solving calculations like these gave her a kind of thrill, a thrill that indicated that she had put her knowledge to use in the most practical of ways. Mathematics was truly a thing of beauty.

"Two perfectly packed suitcases!" From her genuinely enthused tone of voice, Tecna could tell her bonded pixie agreed with her one hundred percent.

"Technology does it again," Tecna declared, snapping her handheld shut with one hand. And about time too—they needed to meet up with the others outside. "Come on; let's g—"

She was halfway out the door when she froze, her teal eyes slowly widening. No...it couldn't be...she must've read incorrectly...but _could_ it be? Praying that her sudden recollection was wrong, she pried open her laptop and started typing frantically to bring up the last program.

"Tecna?" Digit flew over to her side and peered over her shoulder. "What's wrong?"  
The handheld clattered to the floor.

Seconds later, a bloodcurdling scream resonated throughout the grounds of Alfea, a scream that hadn't gone unnoticed by the five fairies gathered in the courtyard. Bloom and Aisha's eyes widened. Flora let out a frightened gasp. Even Stella paused in her tirade about her missing earring to show a bit of alarm.

Musa, however, was the one who said what was on all of their minds.

"Tecna!"

Five sets of luggage lying neglected on the pavement, the remainder of the Winx Club and each of their bonded pixies dashed back to their former dorm as fast as their stamina would allow.

Less than a minute passed before the correct door stood in front of them, but before any of them could lay a finger on the handle, Lockette cried, "Wait, girls! Something really scary could be in there!"

"Right," Bloom agreed. "We don't know what's behind that door, but we'd better prepare ourselves, just in case."

"Magic Winx!"

A instant later, five fully transformed fairies, frantic and disheveled, burst into the room to stumble into a fairy who was even more frantic and disheveled. Tecna sat on her knees in the room's center with an upended suitcase on either side of her, hysterically alternating digging between the two cases. Clothes were flying left and right, the room a complete mess.

The girls didn't know what to make of it. Tecna was ordinarily so calm and composed, the least prone out of all of them to breakdowns like these. No one had ever seen her in this state before.

Different people tend to have different ways of panicking: babbling incessantly, rapid breathing, perhaps even sinking to the floor in a dead faint if the pressure became too much. In Tecna's case, her panic had brought to the surface a vocabulary her friends weren't even aware existed, much less than it was within her knowledge.

"Tecna!" Bloom was the first to breach the doorway. "What happened? What's wrong?"

She was promptly hit in the face with a polyester sweater.

"...confounding..." Tecna was muttering under her breath. "...simply flummoxed..."

She continued spouting word after word, the others hesitating in the doorway. What happened? What had reduced her to this? Should they go in? Did she even notice them?

Turns out, they needn't have worried. Quite suddenly, Tecna turned around, as if she had been aware of their presence the entire time. Eyes snaking past Bloom and coming to rest at the others in the doorway, she said gravely, "Girls, I'm afraid we have a precarious situation on our hands."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," said Flora, leading the others through the door and fluttering down beside Bloom, who was slowly peeling the synthetic fabric off of her face.

"Here," came a tiny voice from the floor. Everyone's eyes angled downward to see Digit, who was struggling to drag Tecna's handheld across the carpet. Bloom compensated by plucking it from her hands. "See for yourself...but you're not gonna like it."

Bloom was soon surrounded by three other fairies, all trying to get a glimpse of the device in her hand. The one absent was Stella. Her mind clearly elsewhere, she muttered, "Maybe it's in here..." and disappeared through the door to her room.

The girls eyed the long, arduous equation before them warily.

Aisha was the first to speak. "All this to pack a suitcase?" (This earned her an impatient _huff_ from Tecna.)

"It all adds up," Musa noted. "You've divided your clothing perfectly between both your suitcases."

Tecna moaned, putting her face in her hands. Something was clearly wrong.

"Wait a minute," Bloom realized. "Twenty-two-point-four percent plus seventy-eight-point-six percent..." _Carry the one..._ "It doesn't add up. I mean, it _does_, but the two numbers come out to be one more than a hundred perc—"

There was a loud _slam_ as Tecna, who had appeared in front of them from seemingly out of nowhere, snatched the device from Bloom's grip and snapped it shut.

"And now," she hissed, "you see exactly the scope of the predicament we are in."

"Uh, actually, not really..." Bloom admitted. Tecna, who had begun pacing, came to an abrupt halt, looking accordingly scandalized.

"Is it not unambiguous?"

"Um...what..?"

"_Obvious_," Digit hissed into Bloom's ear.

"_The equilibrium of the Magical Dimension could be at stake!_" Tecna exclaimed suddenly, making everyone in the room jump. "Very well; allow me to elucidate. In the conversion of numerical data to substantive situations, it is scientifically impossible to have a total amounting to _more than one hundred percent._ No one can have more than what they have—it's impracticable, completely impossible! I'm telling you, it's unheard of that such a percentage should exist beyond the realm of theory, and the fact that it appeared as the product of my computation could mean impending disaster for us all!"

"Um...Tecna?" Bloom asked quietly. Not taking into account that she hadn't understood what the technology fairy had said to her _at all_, she couldn't help but notice a definite flaw in Tecna's ramblings.

"I'm telling you, the entire balance of the universe may have very well been upended! Perhaps this is Darkar's doing..."

"We defeated Darkar ages ago, though," Bloom interrupted impatiently. "But..."

"...or the Trix..."

"Tecna, just listen!" Bloom nearly shouted, which was finally enough to make Tecna pause. "You might not like hearing this, but maybe you just made a mistake."

"Can you not apprehend..?"

"Totally," Bloom lied, "but what I'm saying is that you might have made a miscalculation. Maybe you missed a step or added the numbers wrong. I dunno. But things like that happen all the—"

"_What do you mean, miscalculation?_" Tecna demanded. "On such a simple equation?"

"I just—ugh!" Bloom spun around to face the rest of the girls. "Please tell her that she's being absolutely ridiculous!"

But the others were slowly backing away.

"This is _not_ good," Aisha murmured.

"Bloom, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Tecna doesn't just make mistakes," Musa said in a hushed tone of voice.

"_Never_," Digit added for resolution.

"So you see," Tecna continued, sensing that they were all on the same page and wanting to return to the more urgent matter, "we must take immediate action."

"Okay!" Bloom interrupted yet again. "So it might be a bit out of character, but there's got to be a more reasonable explanation. "Maybe your little doohickey or whatever is broken."

Tecna, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, mouthed the word _doohickey_, looking faintly nauseated.

Bloom's vision was suddenly obscured by a very angry pixie, her hands on her tiny hips.

"Do you not know _who_ you're talking to?" Digit demanded, her face uncomfortably close to Bloom's, and inching closer with each sentence. "Tecna happens to be the fairy of _technology_, which means that all technology in the universe bows to her every whim! Do you not think she'd be able to handle something as simple as a broken computer? Huh? Do you? Do you? Why, I oughtta—"

"That is quite enough," Tune scoffed, grabbing Digit by the sleeve and tugging her out of Bloom's vision.

"Just tell us what you need us to do, Tecna," Flora said, her voice soft but determined.  
"What I propose..."

"I don't think you—any of you—see how...just...ridiculous this is!" Bloom interjected yet again, earning herself glares from both Digit and Tune this time. "I mean, what do you expect to happen, a realm-wide natural disaster? A mass prison break? All the magic being sucked from the magical dimension? All because of a _mistake_?"

For once in her life, no one paid her any mind. Compared to the idea of Tecna making a miscalculation, all these suggestions seemed quite valid.

"Now, it is by no means my intent to cause alarm," said Tecna quite solemnly, "but this breech of the theoretical world into the tangible world can not simply be ignored. This could be an indication of the unraveling of the very fabric of our universe. I think it likely that we may soon be faced with the impending apocalypse."

The whole room, save one, looked fearful at her suggestion.

"You can't be serious..."

"Then what do we do?" Aisha asked.

"I believe we must collogue with Headmistress Faragonda straightaway," Tecna affirmed. "With a matter of such vitality, it's only logical that she should be the first one to know."

"Yeah," Musa agreed. "Maybe she'd know what's up, besides."

"Then it's settled," Tecna said with finality. "We hereupon fly to her office, inform her of our diagnosis, upon the completion of which we may or may not have to prepare for a new mission. We must not delay; the entire universe may be in grave peril."

"I can't believe you all—"

"MAGIC WINX!"

Four fairies and six pixies immediately fled the room, one more following reluctantly behind.

The one straggler, meanwhile, had just poked her head out from behind her former bedroom door, her desperate search rendered fruitless.

"Hello?"

Where _did_ everyone go? Speculating as to why the girls would leave her practically _stranded_, Stella wandered out to the middle bedroom, looking through doors, around corners, up at the ceiling—and promptly tripped over the nearest empty suitcase.

"Oh!" Stella crashed to the floor with a thud. Fuming, she was just about to give whatever it was that tripped her a taste of her Solarian Sunbeam, when she caught sight of a small glimmer in the recesses of the open suitcase.

"Ooh! My earring!"

All animosity forgotten, Stella pocketed her missing earring—how did it even end up in Tecna's suitcase, anyway? She'd no doubt interrogate her about it later, but for now, she was just tickled pink to have found it. Imagine the horror of not being able to wear that particular pair at her mom's garden tea party! Fate must've been looking out for her, she mused.

Beaming happily, she skipped out the door, a new search to find her friends already underway.


End file.
